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Is Yards per Minute (ypm) a thing?

bkozan

Plastic
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
I'm quite new to this hobby, and I recently bought a very large, very ridiculous lathe for a hobbyist. The feeds/speeds charts on the lathe are all in yards/min, which I have never seen before, and the machinery's handbook is definitely all in fpm. Was this normal at some point in the past? Is it simply because my lathe is sooo long that they decided yards instead of feet? Obviously I can simply divide by 3, but I was just curious why.

FWIW its a 1968 Tarnow TUJ48 x 2500 (Polish)

 
More seriously, I really wouldn't expect that to refer to yards per minute. It's a Polish built lathe, no? Would there be a unit or term used in that part of the world that's closer to a customary metric unit it might be referring to?
 
If you work out the numbers on the chart it's pretty damn close. Has to be yards/min. meant on the chart. If you work the numbers it is actually m/min, they probably just short-cutted to "yards" to ship to a market with inch measuring standards without having to redo the entire chart.
 
If you work out the numbers on the chart it's pretty damn close. Has to be yards/min. meant on the chart. If you work the numbers it is actually m/min, they probably just short-cutted to "yards" to ship to a market with inch measuring standards without having to redo the entire chart.


Yeah, that's a good thought. I'd buy it.
 
It's Polish iron curtain era lathe so they were probably not that familiar what is commonly used in imperialistic countries.
 
It's Polish iron curtain era lathe so they were probably not that familiar what is commonly used in imperialistic countries.

Not likely at all. Poland has has "family connections" since (at least) our Revolutionary War. immigrant Poles were major contributors to our technical industries far more than farming or dairy. Eg: mining, steelmaking, automaking, railway, shipbuilding, aircraft, metalworking in general, and many kept in touch with family.

Many blue-collar workers and Widows with US citizenship retired back to Poland even during Soviet domination times because even a very modest pension or Social Security income in hard-currency US$ let them live rather well in that economy.

Nah. Poles would be "more aware than average" of US measure and in "industrial" use.

Looks like a simple "fiddle" of a cost-cutting shortcut, to me..

Much the same as USSR Arsenals not wasting resources to convert millions of battle rifle sights from Tzarist Arshins to meters, nor the USA wasting money converting legacy infantry weapons, anti-tank and heavy Naval gunnery included - from yards to meters when THEY switched-over.

"Run what yah got" applied. Then and now.

We have "puters" now. Put a DTI to it, confirm what is ACTUALLY going-on, "do the math", generate a new chart, laminate it or even "metalphoto" it, and go make chips.
 
I don't think the substitution of yards for meters was a cost saving shortcut.The diameters in the chart are in inches.
 
Maybe they just assumed yards was used since it is close to meters. Anyway, unlikely that we'll ever really know why they did it that way, just one of those things.
 
It depends. If you're from an English-speaking country, then I'll say "Sure, why not?" But if you're from mainland EU, I'll say "No, it's rods per hogshead!"
...
Of course, using HSS makes it possible to take one-seventh of a milimeter for a finishing cut. :D
 








 
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